Tom and Luke Get a Family Pt. 04

Chapter XXXV Planning the celebrations in Montecatini-Terme

Our men had arranged to take Olivia and the three children for a month's holiday in August in the Tuscan town of Montecatini-Terme to the house owned by Luke's parents, which they had arranged to rent for a small sum, for a series of family reunions to mark the tenth anniversary of their civil partnership, and Luke's grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. The house at M-T was large (it had previously been a small hotel) and hence a good venue for a lot of guests. A couple of years before, an outdoor pool had been constructed in the back garden. Costanza was coming in case Olivia was still suckling Caterina, although it was hoped that by then she would have been weaned.

David's parents were to stay for the whole month. David and Jonathan would stay for two weeks, Dorotea, Massimo and Bianca for the other two weeks. Luke's brother Sandro, his partner Dom and their two daughters were also invited, and so were Tommy, Luke's youngest adopted brother, and Cathy and her husband. Cathy, Luke's sister, to their total amazement, was expecting a baby. David's parents had long since given up expecting any great-grandchildren from her! Like many other twentyfirst-century women, she had left childbearing to well into her thirties. Of course Olivia's parents were also coming. They were to stay for a week, as were David's brother Jeroen and his family and Tom's sister Liz Satterthwaite and her husband Aidan and their two children. Tommy asked if he could bring his girlfriend along, and of course this was agreed. There was not enough room in the house to sleep more than eight persons, so some guests had to stay in an hotel across the road, and some of the children had to sleep on camp beds.

Breakfast and dinner for everyone was to be taken at the hotel, by special arrangement. A private room had been set aside for them. No way could Costanza be expected to manage meals for such a vast household! Organizing the accommodation was itself a logistic nightmare, and Tom who had volunteered to do it, was nearly tearing his hair out. For one thing, the house guests, except children, would have to make their own beds. They had considered asking Dom and Sandro to bring Mrs Harrison with them, to help Costanza, but then realized that as the two ladies could not speak each others' languages, it would have been a waste of time!

Tom arranged two adjacent rooms for himself, Luke, Olivia and the children. He and Luke would take turns to share a room with Olivia and Caterina, who by now had been weaned and only needed a bottle at night and in the morning, and the little boys would share a room with whichever of their fathers was not sleeping with their mother. They were not old enough to find anything strange in this arrangement. As it turned out, it was very far-seeing of Tom, because Olivia turned out to be quite demanding in her sexual needs, and whichever of the men was sleeping with her was required to fuck her quite frequently!

By now, she had got used to the men spending time in prayer before getting into bed. What she had never got used to was the way that both Tom and Luke, whenever they were alone with her, before doing anything else, would take all their clothes off and wander round bedroom and bathroom totally naked, their genitals hanging free and shaking as they moved about. Most men are shy about doing that, as it often accords great mirth to women! Only men who are self-confident about their virility can do it. Olivia's first boyfriend had been extremely modest about concealing his manhood. Even if they had not been gay, the uninhibited atmosphere of the communal changing room of the Camford Men's Fitness Centre would have freed Tom and Luke from excessive male modesty.

At first it came as a surprise to Olivia that they each knelt naked to say their prayers. When she asked Tom about this, he explained that nudity symbolized their approach to God, to show that they were laying themselves open in total humility before Him, with any spots, wounds or scars exposed to Him. "After all," he said. "This is how we came into the world!" This disappointed her. She had imagined that they were just being macho and showing off their manhood to her. She had not expected a theological explanation! Tom just grinned and said that he was sorry if she found his big arse and small cock disappointing.

This made Olivia blush, a thing that she rarely did. She said, "Tom, hai un bello cazzo. Non è troppo piccolo!" (You have a lovely cock. It's not too small) and she kissed him on the lips. Although it was undeniable that Luke's bigger cock fitted her multiparous potta better than Tom's, she would never have dreamed of risking hurting his feelings by telling him so.

Eventually, both the men asked her if they could have a few nights together, with the baby in her crib, leaving Olivia to share with the little boys. Caterina now slept through most nights, but the men were happy to get up and get her a bottle if she woke and started to cry. They felt that Olivia needed to relax, and enjoy herself in M-T, but they also needed to make love to one another!

During the month, there were to be two big parties, which it was hoped would enable every visitor to be present at at least one celebration. Otherwise, the visitors were left to do what they wanted. They were expected to entertain themselves, and were allowed to sign out of evening meals if they wished. The bill was of course immense and to offset some of the costs, guests were invited per family group to contribute €100 over and above their travelling costs. But otherwise Luke's parents and grandparents paid the bill. It was no more than a high performance automobile would have cost, and gave pleasure to a far larger number of people!

For the parties, in addition to the usual Prosecco, Luke arranged with the hotel for a special importation on a semi-wholesale scale of Belgian beer for all who wanted something different from their usual drink, or who did not like the beer usually offered by the hotel.

The event was much larger than the previous family festival of ten years previously, because of the arrival of five great-grandchildren to the Scarboroughs, with another on the way. Their grandchildren were all now either fully grown up or teenagers. The occasion would be notable for the presence of Olivia, who was meeting many of the Scarboroughs' extended family for the first time.

Luke had never sought the approval of either his parents or grandparents for his and Tom's relationship with Olivia. He had had no doubt that they would approve their guardianship of Giovanni, but had never considered that they might disapprove of him and Tom fathering two more of Olivia's children. However, he knew that his grandparents had taken a great liking to Olivia, and as they were all so happy together, he did not see that they could disapprove. And as for his mother and Massimo, they were both delighted to have grandchildren.

For our two men, it was important to ensure that not only was one of them available to keep Olivia and Caterina company, but to maximize the time that they could spend with their two sons, as well as letting all the children spent time together and ensuring that Costanza did not feel that she had been brought along as a household drudge. They made it clear to Costanza that she was free every afternoon to go out wherever she wanted. Sometimes she went out in the park with Olivia and the boys. One thing they did several times was for Luke and his brother to take the boys out, while Tom and Dom took the twins out. They also wanted to spend time with Luke's fathers. It would be the first time that Sandro and Dom had been to Italy since Dom had become Earl of Batley. Dom had changed his signature from Dominic Ovenden to Dominic Batley, but otherwise was modest to the point of reticence about using his courtesy title. He had not changed his passport.

Chapter XXXVI The celebrations in Montecatini-Terme 1

Eventually August arrived and after a fraught couple of days getting organized, the party from Trabizona arrived in M-T, shortly before the first visitors. One day, as Tom, Giovanni and Bernardo were walking in the spa park with David and Jon, Tom confessed to them that much as he loved his job and his life in Italy, he often wished that they all could live in Camford. "But it would be very difficult. Olivia is still not very confident about speaking English, and I'm frightened that if we were to move now, the boys would quickly forget their Italian background and nationality. Above all, Luke would have great difficulty in finding a job that suited him. I know that he doesn't need to work, but that would be against all that your family has taught him. So except in the unlikely event of me being headhunted by Camford University, I guess that we are fixtures here. And we men have a great social life. Hopefully as the children get older, Olivia will get out and do more. It isn't as if she had no help in the house. Costanza is a treasure.

"Olivia is so sweet, she has become the second woman in my life and seems set to replace my sister in top position! Even Luke, who has always been indifferent to women, has started to love her. We are enormously lucky to have such a happy threesome. The children will benefit enormously from having two different fathers!"

"You know, Tom," said Jon, "you represent all that David and I never did. We both trained as chemists to doctoral level, but never became professional scientists. Our lives have shown us that we have to go where God and our abilities send us. David had to make use of his God-given talent for singing. I had to give up a research career to look after Luke and Cathy when they were little. Maybe God wants you to be a chemist in Italy rather than Camford, maybe the greatest Italian chemist since Avogadro!"

Tom then asked Jon if he thought that Professor Edward Bairstow would be prepared to come to Italy to baptize Caterina. "He baptized Luke and Luke would love it if he could baptize our new daughter," said Tom.

"Oh, didn't you know?" said Jon, "He's retired from his chair and he has gone as Chaplain to the English church in Geneva. Maybe you could take her there to be baptized."

"Right, I'll tell Luke and we'll get in touch with him. Does he still have his Camford E-mail address?"

"Yes."

"Dad, please may we have an icecream?" said Giovanni, who by now had overcome his reluctance to speak English, certainly where food and drink were concerned. The boys called Tom, Dad and Luke, Pappa.

"OK, little lad. Here's the money. Go and get two, one for yourself and one for Bernardo. I'll find some tissues, so that Bernardo does not get himself into a sticky mess. Don't forget to say 'per favore' to the icecream man."

Jon grinned at David. "You can see that Tom is a doting father!" he remarked to him.

Tom blushed. "I'll never forget how rottenly my father and his women treated me after my mother died." he said. "My children are going to be loved and cared for till they are grown up! Tomorrow it's going to be Jane and Anne who get treated to icecreams. Dom and I are taking them up the funicular to Montecatini-Alta. They are such sweet children! I hope that ours are as good in a couple of years' time."

"What are you going to tell them about their different fathers, and when?" David asked.

"I'm not sure. But as they all have different surnames, they will need to know before they go to school. The big problem will be that while both Bernardo and Caterina will know that one of the two men that they all call 'Dad' or 'Pappa' is their father, for poor Giovanni, while he can call two men Dad and Pappa, neither is his father. We are already teaching them that some children are brought up without any father, and that they are specially lucky to have two fathers! Of course it doesn't in reality make any difference, because we love all three of them equally, but that is something that they MUST learn before they are old enough to really understand what fatherhood means. At least we are not deceiving them by concealing their paternity."

The next day, Luke went out with Olivia, with Caterina in the pushchair. "Tesoro mio," said Luke, "I hope that you are not bored or lonely here. Montecatini-Terme is a lovely place, but we do all tend to split up into different groups, and leave you with the baby."

"No, Luca, I am really enjoying it. It's so nice to see all our families without the rush and scramble of a short visit. I was amazed to hear that your sister has finally decided to have a baby after all this time."

"That's the disadvantage of being a career woman. I hope that motherhood will change her. The problem was that being brought up in a family of men has made her a militant feminist. She always objected when my fathers and Tom and I used to swim naked in our pool at Rockwell's Barn. She used to get furious when we used to swim naked for the entertainment of our grandmother, who loved to see young men naked. It was a total surprise to all of us when she got married. When they arrive, I hope to get to know my new brother-in-law. Do you think that my brother Sandro is like me? He's become a family man too, now."

"It's difficult to say. He's much more Italian than you of course. It's particularly noticeable that he's less religious. He doesn't go with you and Tom, Tommy and his girlfriend, the little boys and your parents and grandparents to church in Firenze on Sundays."

"He has the Italian attitude that religion is for women, even though in our family it's the men who pray and go to church. I hope really that we do more than just that and try to be loving and forgiving. Dom and Sandro did get the twins baptized though, in the chapel at Dom's ancestral home in Yorkshire. Sandro had to struggle to get his English fluent and idiomatic enough to live in England and talk to his colleague railwaymen. And now he's the partner of a lord! At least Lady Anne and Lady Jane can speak Italian. I suppose I should call them Donna Anna and Donna Gianetta, but they sound like names out of an Italian opera! It's good practice for their language skills that they have been able to visit Italy. They are a sweet little pair. They took turns to read a fairy story in Italian last night to Giovanni and Bernardo. I hope our little girl grows up to be as sweet as them!" he said with a loving smile at Caterina in her push-chair.

"They've made a great impression on Costanza. They spend ages in the kitchen talking to her. That's a good test of their Italian skills!"

Olivia was talking quite animatedly, and the effect was to cause a huge welling-up of affection inside Luke, who stopped, put the brake on the pushchair, threw his arms round Olivia and kissed her more fervently than he had ever done before.

"Ti amo, dolce Olivia mia!" he said. Olivia could feel the hard object in Luke's crotch as he embraced her. She kissed him back and he opened his mouth and her tongue entered it. After a few minutes, they separated and resumed their walk. "I've never done that kind of kiss with a woman before!" said an amazed Luke. Olivia smiled to herself.

Next day, Luke took Giovanni and Bernardo for a walk in the spa park with Tommy and his girlfriend. Luke was anxious to find out what sort of a girl she was and whether the two had plans for a long-term relationship. "I hope the large number of gay men in Tommy's family don't upset you!" he said to the girl, whose name was Eleanor.

"No-one could have had a better upbringing than me after I was adopted!" said Tommy proudly. "Dad and Pop, and to a lesser extent Sandro and Dom, have always been very good to me. So four gays have played the biggest role in my life. If Eleanor likes me, it has to be because of my upbringing, so she can't be homophobic. No-one has tried to push me into a particular job, and I was allowed to read at Camford subjects that from a job point of view were totally useless, but I enjoyed my study of classics and Italian enormously, and I'm going to become a teacher."

"Do the two of you go to church together?" Luke asked. "I was a bit surprised when Eleanor asked if she could go to the English church in Florence with Tommy's grandmother and the men of the family."

"Yes, it was through the college chapel choir that we met," said Eleanor. "There are so few believers among students nowadays that we have to stick together. Thank you for letting me come with Tommy to Montecatini-Terme." She was tall, slender and dark-haired and even Luke had to admit to himself that she was very attractive. She too was training to be a teacher.

"You must thank my partner Tom, not me," said Luke, "he's the one who arranged the accommodation. But we are delighted to welcome you, and if you decide to join our family, you will make us very happy. I can't speak for Tommy of course! It's up to you and him to decide! But whatever happens, you will be welcome to come and stay in Italy with Tom and me and Olivia at any time." Luke would have liked to kiss Eleanor, but forbore out of fear that he would seem to be pushing Tommy and Eleanor a stage further in their relationship. He was, however, left with the feeling that if Tommy and Eleanor were, or were going to become, an item, he would not be the only one to be delighted. Tom had put them in a twin-bedded room, but whether they were actually sleeping together was not to be found out, because everyone had to make their own beds!

One day, Luke went out with the two boys and his grandparents. He said to his grandfather, "I never discussed with you how Tom and I, who had promised one another to forsake all others came to start a relationship with Olivia. It could be construed as a breach of our partnership vows. But when we first met her she was desperate, pregnant with no-one to care for her and no future. We gave her fatherless son two fathers, we prevented her from consigning her baby to childcare while she worked to support him and we gave her a comfortable home and Costanza to help her with the house.

"Marriage and civil partnerships should not be regarded as 'holy deadlock,' they need to be flexible relationships. As long as the parties involved are true, honest and loving with one another the relationship need not be exclusive. When Giovanni was a year old, Olivia ASKED us to give her another child. And we obviously wanted to pass on our our genes to another generation, so we said yes, though we discussed it with one another for a long time first. In the novel Maurice, E.M. Forster discusses the depressing problem that gay men have of effectively being sterile. We considered A.I., but decided that sleeping with her was better for her, so the child would not grow up with a syringe for a father! So Tom fathered Bernardo and chose his name, and I did the same for Caterina. In traditional terms then, we are both adulterers and Olivia is a concubine! That just shows how obsolete such attitudes are. As long as there is love and no deceit, partnerships will thrive. I have great respect for your wisdom, so I hope that you do not disapprove of what we have done."

"Why should I disapprove? replied Mr Scarborough. "You are both well educated young men, and Olivia is an intelligent woman. None of you are going to take such steps unadvisedly, lightly and wantonly, as the Prayer Book says of getting married. I heartily approve. You have a loving woman and three charming children. As long as you can all live together in love, I can't utter a word of blame!"

Chapter XXXVII The celebrations in Montecatini-Terme 2

In the latter half of the month, Cathy and her husband Edmund Robertshaw arrived. Luke had not seen them since the day of Dom and Sandro's civil partnership ceremony. Neither he nor Tom had been able to go to their wedding, which had taken place about the time that Caterina had been born. Luke spent some time apologizing to his sister and explaining how his job made short term time-off very difficult to obtain. "So how are you liking fatherhood?" Cathy asked.